


when darkness comes

by peterparkr



Series: Febuwhump 2020 [9]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Dad Peter Parker, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Grandpa Tony, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Protective Peter Parker, Whump, febuwhump 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:47:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22789747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterparkr/pseuds/peterparkr
Summary: While Morgan is baby-sitting Michelle and Peter's daughter, the two kids get abducted.Febuwhump Day 9: Lose You
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Febuwhump 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620064
Comments: 7
Kudos: 127





	when darkness comes

**Author's Note:**

> Anna-May is one of their kids in a comic run! I think it's a cute name!

Peter’s phone rings. He glances at the caller ID and then across the table at Michelle.

She raises her eyebrows and Peter tilts the phone so that she can read Tony’s name from the screen. 

“Answer it,” she says.

He picks it up and jabs at the green button.

“Hi, Peter!”

His eyes immediately narrow. Tony’s voice is way too enthusiastic. It sounds fake—like someone’s trying to do an impression of him but not quite pulling it off. A prickling sensation of unease creeps over Peter.

“Why are you talking like that?”

There’s a sigh. That sounds more like the Tony that Peter knows. “I was trying not to freak you out.”

His heartbeat feels like it’s expanding into his throat. “Well, that backfired because I’m kind of starting to really freak out.”

Michelle holds her hand out, flexing her fingers in a ‘give it here’ motion. He shakes his head.

“Settle down, Spidey, don’t crush your phone.”

Peter looks down at his hand, noting how much his grip has tightened around the device. He shifts his fingers a little, leaving tiny dents on the back of the case in their wake.

He starts to mentally reprimand himself for losing control, but reigns the feelings back in. It’s been a rough couple of months. The Avengers have taken some hits, finding more and more Rogue Skrull sleeper agents among their ranks. It makes sense that he’s on edge.

Tony shouldn’t have anything to do with that though. He’s been retired for years. Peter rolls his shoulders and tries to relax.

“Just tell me what happened, Tony.”

There’s a pause. “Why don’t you and MJ come on back? I’ll explain once you get here.”

The low hum of conversation starts to fade in and out around Peter. The unease has ramped up to something closer to terror. He feels like he’s going to choke on his heart-beat. 

“Is it Annie?” he hears himself ask.

Michelle must have walked around the table at some point, because her hand wraps around the phone. Peter’s grip automatically releases as she snatches it away.

She sits on the arm of his chair, resting one hand on his shoulder while the other holds the phone to her ear. “Hi, Tony. Whatever tactic you’re trying to use is terrible—I’m only telling you so you know to try a different approach in the future. What’s going on?”

* * *

“Peter, you need to calm down.” Michelle’s voice is steady, but her hand shakes as she pulls open the car door.

Peter runs his hand through his hair a few times. The motion is probably making it stick up at all angles, only enhancing the crazed look that’s already on his face. He caught a glimpse of it in the mirror on the way out of the restaurant. His reflection looked downright frightening—pale with frantic, wide eyes. The hostess at the front gave him and Michelle a wide berth as they exited.

“I can make it there faster if I swing.”

“By a few minutes at most. Get in the car, Pete.”

He paces back and forth a few more times before nodding and sliding into the passenger seat.

It takes them twenty minutes to get to the tower. Peter finds himself rambling the whole way. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of filter—his mouth just spews out whatever thought pops into his head. Some of them aren’t great. Michelle doesn’t say much, but she reaches over and squeezes his hand whenever he ventures into dark territory.

The door to the underground garage opens as soon as they turn off the main street. Michelle zips the car through the rows and stops it right next door, not bothering with a parking spot.

FRIDAY greets them as they step into the elevator. It starts moving before they can press any button.

“Any updates, Fri?” Michelle asks softly.

“I’m afraid not.”

She bites her lip and stares down at the ground.

“It’s going to be okay. We’ll find them.” His voice doesn’t sound as sure as he would like it too, but he supposes it doesn’t matter. He already poured out all of his doubts to her in the car, and even if he hadn’t, she knows how his mind works.

“Remember when you first told me about ‘Parker Luck’?”

Peter nods. It was back when they were still in high school, sometime after his identity was revealed. Seeing his face up on the screen felt like the end of the world. In reality, it was a quick fix. Tony and Pepper resolved the whole situation in two weeks, sending Peter Parker back into blissful anonymity. Those few weeks were a piece of cake compared to how he feels now.

“I think I’m finally starting to realize the full-extent of that.”

Peter winces. It is ironic. This is the first time they’ve used Morgan’s baby-sitting services for anything that wasn’t work-related.

“Finally starting to regret being brought into the mess, then?” It’s only half a joke. He always told her that she would.

She hit his arm lightly. “Don’t be an idiot.”

The door of the elevator opens and they rush out of it down the hallway. Peter can see movement through the frosted glass that leads to the penthouse—more than just that of Tony and Pepper.

In his haste to get inside, he reaches forward toward a panel to the right of where the door actually is.

MJ calls a warning a second too late. His hand pushes through the glass and the whole panel shatters to the ground around him. A few of the shards slice through his outstretched hand and wrist as they fall.

Peter looks up sheepishly. Tony, Pepper and about five people in police uniforms stare back at him.

“That’s one way to make an entrance, Pete.” Tony laughs, but it sounds forced.

Michelle grabs Peter’s arm, holding it steady so that the blood drips onto the mess of glass and not down the sleeve of his dress shirt. “Are you okay?”

He nods, blinking a few times. He feels painfully close to crying—knows it’s not from the sting of the cuts, but the overall stress and frustration of the situation.

One of the officers waves her hand toward him and Michelle. “And these are—“

“The parents of the two-year-old,” Pepper says. “Come on in you two, don’t worry about the glass. We’ll clean it up later.”

Peter steps through the empty space where the panel used to be. He picks Michelle up and lifts her over the glass without really thinking about it. 

She cracks a smile while she’s in the air, leaning her head towards him. “I think she meant actually using the door, Pete.”

“Oops.” When he sets her down, there’s a red stain on her waist from his hand. It stands out sharply against the pale yellow of her dress. He winces and pats at it, which just makes it smear more. “Sorry.”

“I think it's the least of our problems right now.” She grabs his arm and looks at it again. “I do think you should get this bandaged up, though.”

Peter pulls it away. “It’s fine—not that deep. I’ll heal.”

Michelle frowns. “I know, but—”

“I’ve got it.” Tony half-jogs over to them. “The police need one of you to answer some questions about Annie. MJ—you could? While I get this guy cleaned up.”

“Yeah, that—” She tucks her hair behind her ear and swallows. “That sounds good. Thanks Tony.”

She walks over to the group of police officers. Pepper gives her a hug and keeps her arm around her as they start asking questions.

“It’s Anna-May Parker,” Peter hears Michelle tell them.

He looks over his shoulder, toying with the idea of going back. Michelle shouldn’t have to deal with the police alone and like he said, the cuts will heal up by themselves. 

He doesn’t get a say in the matter, though. Tony tightens his grip and guides him out of the room. Instead of turning into the kitchen like Peter expects, he takes a sharp right into the stairwell.

“Where are we going?”

“Lab. There’s a sink down there. And some bandages. Don’t worry.”

“There’s a sink and some bandages in the kitchen,” Peter points out.

“But I don’t keep my suits in there, do I?”

“You still have suits?”

Tony glances back at him before opening the door at the bottom of the stairwell. “What did you think I was going to do? Blow them all up?”

“Well, yeah,” Peter nods his thanks to Tony as he keeps the door open for him. “I mean you’ve done that before when I was, like, ten—they looked like fireworks on the news.”

“Well, not this time. They’re in storage.” He ushers Peter into the lab, glancing nervously around.

Peter mirrors the action, scanning the hallway for any sign of the kids or whoever took them.

“Do you think they’re still in the building?”

“No. FRIDAY would have found them already.”

“Then why are you sneaking around?”

“Because it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. And if Pepper finds us, we’re going to need permission.”

He leads Peter over to the sink, before turning and rummaging through one of the cabinets. “Clean the cuts out. There’s soap.”

“What, exactly, would we need permission for?” Peter thinks he knows the answer, but he wants confirmation. “Why do you need a suit?”

“You’re not cleaning them.” Tony grabs Peter’s wrist and puts it under the water. He starts scrubbing around the gashes with soap.

“Tony, I’m a grown man. I’ve got this.”

“Could have fooled me.” Tony pats his hand down with a clean rag and then wraps gauze around it.

Peter flexes his hand a little, noting that Tony made the bandages loose enough that he can still easily move it.

He narrows his eyes at him. “Why are we down here?”

“Oh come on, kid. You can’t tell me you’re okay with sitting up there talking to the _cops_ and hoping that they manage to not screw up their jobs for once.”

Peter frowns. He pictures Annie and Morgan tied up somewhere, with some guy in a ski-mask, or alternatively, a group of Skrulls. He doesn’t know which is worse. Both make his blood boil. At least he knows the Skrulls’ whole gig pretty well by now. Humans are more unpredictable. 

Either way, Tony’s right. They’re more capable than the cops.

Something on his face must show his decision, because Tony claps his hands, a determined smile on his face. “Let’s go get our goddamn kids.”

He goes over to the side of the lab and issues a few commands to FRIDAY. The wall slides up, revealing a whole section of the lab that Peter’s never seen before. Various Iron Man suits line the walls. Peter follows Tony inside and spins in a circle, gaping at all of them. There are a few versions of a Spider-Man variety, as well. 

He turns to Tony. “Oh my god?”

“I get bored sometimes. It’s good to have hobbies.”

Peter tilts his head to the side.

“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t _use_ them, except in special cases. Like now.”

Peter swallows—a queasy swoop rising in his stomach. He pictures sweet, little Annie again. She’s probably terrified right now, if she’s alive. Peter pushes that thought away—she _has_ to be alive. She’s stuck in some unfamiliar place and there’s no way she’ll be able to fully comprehend what’s happening. It’s almost worse that Morgan will. At seventeen, she’s brazen and headstrong—with a self-sacrificial streak almost as wide as her father’s. Peter’s dragged her out of more fights than Tony is privy to. She won’t let anything happen to Annie as long as she’s conscious. The thought is equal parts comforting and terrifying.

“Hey, Pete.” One of Tony’s hands falls on his shoulder and the other one snaps in front of his face. “Are you with me?”

He gives a jerky nod. 

Tony moves his head back and forth, analyzing Peter’s face. “Are you up for this? Or do I have to worry about you trying to walk through more glass?”

Peter shakes himself. “We’re wasting time.”

“Pete—”

He sidesteps around Tony toward the Spider-Suit section. He points at them. “These are cool. Why were you hiding them from me?”

“It’s just a hobby.” Peter can hear Tony’s footsteps following him. “You know, by avoiding the question, you’re answering it. One second you go practically catatonic on me, the next you have a singular determination. That doesn’t scream stable.” 

Peter reaches out to touch the suit in the center, and it immediately starts to bind to his body. Nanites seep up his arm and expand until he’s fully covered. 

“Kid,” Tony says. “Listen—”

“ _Tony_.” Peter crosses his arms. “Suit up.”

Tony’s worried expression shifts into a glare. He starts mumbling about Peter telling him what to do and how it was his idea in the first place, but he still walks over to the displays and taps at one of his suits. It adheres to him in the same way that Peter’s had.

“Let’s go,” Peter says, tapping his foot impatiently.

Now that the idea is in his head, he can’t stay still. It’s an itch that he won’t be able to fulfill until Annie and Morgan are in front of him—safe and alive. He _needs_ to find them. 

“First, look at me.”

Peter doesn’t. He keeps his eyes fixed on the door that he knows leads from the lab to the outside.

“Look, Peter.”

He taps his foot a few more times and then turns to him.

“They’re going to be okay, got it? We’re going to save them. But you need to keep your cool. It doesn’t help them if we make sloppy mistakes.”

“I’m not a child. I don’t make sloppy mistakes anymore.”

Tony sighs. “I’ve heard that one before.”

Despite his words, Tony walks over to the exit. It opens for him and he takes off. Peter shoots a web out and follows.

“FRIDAY, scrounge up any footage you can find. Scan it for Morgan and Annie.”

Peter’s grateful that Tony isn’t turning his comms off while he runs his tests. He thinks he’d go crazy in silence, just swinging around and searching for any trace of them on the dark streets.

The city is huge. But that’s not even the extent of the area they have to search. Morgan and Annie could be out of it by now. They could be in another state entirely.

Peter takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment.

“I found a match, Boss.”

Peter’s eyes fly open. In his shock, he forgets to shoot the next web and plummets a few feet lower than he means to. His arms flail in the air until he finds the button and regains his rhythm.

“Nice,” Tony comments drily to Peter.

He doesn’t understand how he’s staying so calm. Peter feels like he’s unraveling at the edges.

He must say at least part of the thought out loud, because Tony answers it. “Well, you gave me a lot of experience in the area—what with the collapsing in allies in the middle of the night, crashing my plane, not to mention dying for five years—”

“They’re not dead,” Peter interrupts, voice rising into shrill territory.

“Right,” Tony says. “Poor example. They’re going to be fine. They’ve only been gone for an hour. That works for us—statistically speaking.”

There’s still a lot that can happen in an hour. And the clock doesn’t stop now that they’re searching. The hands are still spinning, adding to the amount of time the girls have been alone with their captor. Peter can feel each passing second like a knife-tip on his skin, knowing that Annie’s out there somewhere, waiting for him to find her.

“Where did FRIDAY spot them?” he whispers.

Tony recites an address. “They were caught on a camera outside of an abandoned warehouse. About thirty minutes ago. Sounds like the perfect, creepy, kidnapping kind of place.”

Peter takes off, following the directions of his suit to the location. He hears the sounds of repulsors trailing him. In another situation he would revel in the nostalgia of the moment. It’s been over a decade since he and Tony took to the streets in their suits.

Tony takes down the door of the warehouse with a laser beam and Peter sprints inside.

He stops in the center of the vast open space. Tony must find a way to turn on the lights, because they all come on in a series of echoing thuds. Peter brings his hands up to shield his eyes from the harsh glare. When he removes them, it’s clear that the whole warehouse is devastatingly empty.

His heart starts to skip around in his chest. He turns to Tony. “Did FRIDAY see them anywhere else?”

Tony’s eyes dart around the warehouse a few times before he shakes his head. 

“Scan the room for anything we can use,” he murmurs. A blue line of light comes out of his suit and starts sweeping the room.

“If they’re not here then where are they?” Peter demands. “Another camera in the city had to have seen them.”

“FRIDAY didn’t find them on any other camera.” Tony’s voice is slow and patient as if he’s trying to make Peter understand a difficult concept. It’s more patronizing than anything. Peter grinds his teeth together.

“Then FRIDAY’s wrong. They didn’t disappear.”

“She’s not wrong. They could have them in a vehicle, or disguised in some way that she wouldn’t recognize, but she’s not wrong.”

Peter starts pacing. “Then what do we do? We have no leads. It’s been over an hour. They could be on a flight right now—halfway across the country.”

“Remember when we were having that conversation about keeping our collective cool?”

Peter throws his hands up, doesn’t stop walking. “This isn’t a very ‘cool’ situation. So, I’m sorry if I have a little bit of a sense of urgency. I think that’s an appropriate response because without it, we’re just going to stand here, doing nothing. And then we’re going to lose them and—”

“Pete. You’re on the ceiling.”

He looks up, which is actually down. Tony’s underneath him, head tilted back.

Peter blinks a few times, struggling a little stave off the panic and orient himself. He crouches to the ceiling, then hangs down from his hand before dropping to the floor.

“My bad,” he says.

“You’re not completely wrong. The sooner we find them, the better. We—“ Tony trails off and then stays silent for a few seconds before continuing. “I think we should check some of the Skrulls’ known hideouts.”

Peter feels his eyes start to bulge out. “You think it’s them?”

“I don’t know. But as you said, we’re kind of low on leads right now.”

“If it were the Skrulls—don’t you think we’d have seen them by now? Like, the Skrull versions of them?”

Tony’s silent for a beat. “Maybe. Maybe not. Their plan could have been compromised somehow.”

“Okay,” Peter sighs. ”Well, I have a list of locations.”

“I do, too,” Tony says. “Just because I’m out of the game doesn’t mean that I don’t keep tabs on what you guys are up to.”

They burn through the closest three locations on the list. Sam might read Peter the riot act tomorrow, for revealing how much intel they actually have on the Rogue Skrulls, but Peter doesn’t care. 

The fourth base is close to the tower. As soon as they get within a close enough range, Peter senses that there’s something off about it. The first two floors of the building are completely still, but the third is alight with action. Both hope and fear spike in Peter. 

“This one’s strange,” he says.

They watch it for a few minutes. Peter hears Tony mumbling to FRIDAY under his breath.

The motion on the third floor dies down. Peter looks over at Tony.

He nods and then his helmet snaps up to cover his head. Peter opens his mouth to tell Tony to go right to the third floor, but he must have come to a similar conclusion because he shoots right through one of the windows on that story.

Peter swings in and lands next to him on all fours. He tries to straighten up, but his muscles freeze halfway through the movement as waves of shock run through him. He hears Tony inhale sharply at his side.

“Oh my god,” Peter whispers.

There are two suits, facing away from them. The one on the right is gold and red. The left has a spider-symbol in the center of its back.

Peter’s never seen himself as a Skrull, but he’s heard other Avengers’ stories. He thought he would be prepared for it, but he feels just as uneasy and off-kilter as they described.

The two suits turn around slowly. Peter holds up his hands, fingers poised over his web-shooters.

The nanites of both the masks in front of them seep into the rest of their suit simultaneously.

Peter blinks and then blinks again. He can’t quite comprehend what he’s seeing in front of him.

“Hi, boys,” Pepper says.

Michelle grins over at her and then shakes her head a bit, letting her hair cascade out over the suit. Peter’s jaw drops. He’s glad that he still has his mask on to cover it.

“Where have you two been, then?” Her tone is teasing. “Stop for coffee? Some snacks? A bathroom break?”

Peter’s having trouble forming words. Tony must be suffering from a similar affliction, because the room lapses into silence.

Then, a voice pipes up from behind Michelle and Pepper. “Mom? That’s you? Holy shit. It was weird enough when I thought dad was in a suit.”

Tony’s helmet falls. “Morgan?”

It spurs a flurry of noise and movement. Tony darts to Pepper’s side and kneels down next to Morgan. Annie bursts into tears and Michelle crouches and starts making soothing sounds. Pepper grabs Peter’s arm and leads him forward. He breaks off the pieces of rope holding Morgan’s and Annie’s arm to the chain on the wall on autopilot. He has to turn his mind off, because he might lose it if he takes the time to process the image of the two girls tied up.

Michelle keeps trying to talk to him, but he can’t quite understand the words. His brain is still buzzing with panic. He can’t seem to find relief from it, even while staring down at Annie in Michelle’s arms. It’s like his brain can’t quite believe that she’s real.

Tony’s unusually quiet, too. He doesn’t say anything until he announces that he sent for a car, even though they’re less than a block from the tower.

Happy shows up three minutes later. He doesn’t stop smiling from the moment they walk out of the building with the girls. Peter doesn’t remember ever being given that expression after his close calls. The guy’s gone soft in his old age.

Peter sits with Morgan in the back row of the car. He’d like to be closer to Annie, but she needs to be in the car-seat in the middle row, and he can’t make Tony or Pepper sit in the far back. He settles for draping his arm over the top of the seat so that his hand dangles in front of her. She reaches up and grabs one of his fingers. 

“I didn’t let them do anything to her,” Morgan says. “I promise.”

Peter would believe her either way, but her appearance proves the statement. Her left eye is swollen shut, deep bluish gray tones already blooming around it.

He forces himself to smile at her. “Thanks, kiddo.”

As they pull into the tower’s garage, Tony seems to snap out of his reverie. “What just happened?”

Pepper twists back from the passenger seat. “Quite a lot, honey.”

“Okay, let’s start from the beginning. Nobody leaves this vehicle until I understand the full story.”

Morgan groans. “Dad, do you understand how badly I need to shower right now?”

“It can wait for a few more minutes, sweetie.”

She slumps back against the seat.

“Annie!” Tony boops her nose and she starts to giggle. “You can start us off. Do you have anything to say?”

She looks at Michelle and then at Peter for guidance, then she turns back to Tony. She holds up a hand and waves it a little.

“Hi, Grandpa,” she says, in the cute kid way where the ‘r’ sounds more like a ‘w’.

Everyone in the car breaks into a chorus of delighted laughter. The whole exchange should serve to release some of the tension in Peter’s chest, but all it does is tighten it.

“Well, that was adorable,” Tony continues. “But not exactly useful. Mo, you’re up.”

“Well, MJ and Peter dropped Annie off at the tower so they could have their date night.” She puts a weird emphasis on the last two words and wiggles her eyebrows.

Michelle laughs. It cues Peter to at least twist his lips up a bit.

“Then about twenty minutes later we went to the ice-cream shop across the street and Peter showed up. Well, now I know it was a Skrull, but it looked like you.”

“You _do_ have a Skrull look-alike,” Tony exclaims. “Congrats—that’s a right of passage.”

“Yup.” The word comes out more stilted than he means it to.

He feels both Michelle’s and Tony’s eyes land on him and linger. He keeps his own focus on his hands, weaving his fingers together in his lap.

“We followed him almost all the way to the building before I realized that something was off.” Morgan grimaces. “Sorry. I tried to grab Annie and run but he caught me.”

“That’s not your fault,” Pepper chimes in from the front.

Tony nods, turning to Peter. “FRIDAY’s facial recognition must have found their Skrull versions over by the warehouse.”

A dull roar starts up in Peter’s ears. He looks at Morgan, then at Annie. They could be Skrulls right now and the real kids could be out there somewhere—still scared and trapped—

“Okay, now you two.” Tony points between Michelle and Pepper. “Explain.”

“Well, we realized that you guys were going out to try to find the girls _behind our backs_ as soon as you went downstairs,” Pepper says.

“Not as subtle as I thought then,” Tony mutters.

“Tony.” Pepper pats his knee a few times. “The one thing that you have never once been is subtle.”

Tony frowns but then tilts his head to the side and nods, accepting the statement.

“After we finished up with the police, we found all the suits lined up.” Michelle grins back at Peter as she speaks.

“An _insane_ amount of suits,” Pepper adds.

Tony winces.

“We decided that if you guys could run off to try to rescue our kids—well, so could we!”

“MJ knew where some of the Skrull bases were, and FRIDAY confirmed their locations.”

“So we suited up and went to the closest one, took down some Skrulls.” Michelle holds her hand up at Peter. She makes her own ‘thwip’ sound while pressing the button. A web sticks to his chest. She grins. “These are fun.”

“You took out all of those Skrulls?” There’s a note of reverence in Tony’s question.

“It wasn’t hard,” Pepper says. “Makes me wonder what took you so long back in the day.”

Tony opens his mouth, eyes squinted in a scandalized expression, but then it eases and he nods again. 

“Yeah, checks out,” he mumbles. “That’s incredible. And hot.”

“Dad!” Morgan squeals in horror. “You can’t say that.”

“I’m not allowed to say that your mom is _the_ hottest person I’ve ever laid eyes on?”

“Not in front of me!”

“Alright, alright, I think we all know the rest,” Happy says. “The real hero shows up with everyone else’s ride home. Now, get out of my car.”

They file out a bit haphazardly. Tony sticks his tongue out at Peter and Morgan before slamming the door, leaving them stuck in the back until Michelle unstraps Annie and folds the seats down.

Peter climbs out in a daze and wanders inside after the rest of the group. Michelle tugs on the web that’s still attached to his chest and pulls him close to her.

“You’re quiet,” she says. She runs a hand over the suit that she’s wearing. “Don’t like that I’m borrowing this for the day?”

“What? No! You’re so cool. I love you!”

She grins a little, but then her face softens. “Everything’s okay. She’s right here.”

Peter knows that. He can see her, tucked into Michelle’s side. There’s not so much as a scratch on her, just a little dirt. 

Michelle bounces Annie in her arm a few times and then holds her towards Peter. Tiny fingers wiggle around, reaching out to him. He swallows hard and hugs her to his chest.

* * *

Two hours later, Peter’s leg is perpetually bouncing. It doesn’t stop no matter how many times Michelle rests her hand on it. He can’t seem to find a way down from the edge. He’s teetering on the tip of it, narrowly avoiding crashing over into a complete breakdown.

Peter watches carefully as Michelle’s eyes start to close. His leg starts moving faster. 

He waits until her breathing becomes completely even and then leaps to his feet. He walks quickly over to the crib in the corner. Annie’s lying peacefully across the bottom of it, hand wrapped around her little stuffed dalmatian. Peter listens for her heart-beat for a minute—it’s steady, strong.

It only calms him for a second. He glances over at Michelle, to make sure she’s actually sleeping, and then starts pacing.

“Okay,” Tony pipes up from the other couch. His glasses are on the tip of his nose and he’s eyeing Peter over the rims. “Come on, kid.”

He stands and walks out of the room.

Peter contemplates protesting, or staying behind without a word, but he doesn’t think that Tony would let him get away with it. He spares a glance at Pepper and Morgan, who quickly try to make it look like they weren’t staring at him, and then follows Tony into the kitchen.

“You’ve crossed over from mild concern into official ‘freaking me the fuck out’ territory. Do you have some sort of medication that you need to be on right now?”

Peter closes his eyes. “No—”

“Then I suggest getting some because—”

“Stop,” Peter pleads. “Please.”

“Kid, they’re okay. Everything’s alright.”

“They could be skrulls!”

“They’re not. We checked, remember?”

Peter tugs on the ends of his hair. “I know. But they _could_ be.”

“P—”

He gestures wildly in the air. “They’re not safe!”

And Peter is the reason why. Michelle and Annie should move across the country. They’ll be safer if they’re not associated with him. Alternatively, they need to be around him all the time, so that he can protect him. He doesn’t know which is better. All he’s truly sure of is that he’d never forgive himself if something happened to them.

“They’re fine. They’re right in the other room.”

“No,” Peter protests. “They’re never safe. It’s my fault. I need to—”

Tony holds up a hand. “Listen. I know where you’re going because I’ve been there before, but don’t, alright? If anything, I think Pep and MJ just proved that it’s not all on you—or me—to protect our family. This is a group effort. Anything that happens, we’ll figure it out together.”

“But, I’m the reason that they’re in danger in the first place.”

“I hate to break it to you, kid, but bad things happen to people who aren’t Spider-Man, too.”

They happen more frequently to him though. He’s got a target on his back that extends to everyone he loves.

Tony’s already glaring at him like he can read his mind. Peter gives a resigned nod and then ducks his head.

“Now will you please sit down—maybe get some sleep? You’re making me a nervous wreck.”

Peter’s pretty sure he’s already there. “Well, I guess we can’t have two of those.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Tony slings his arm over Peter’s shoulders and leads him back out of the kitchen. 

Annie’s awake now, her head poking out over the side of the crib. Her face lights up when she sees Peter and she lifts her arms.

“Up, Daddy!”

He hoists her over the side and then settles her into his arms, tousling the mop of curls on her head. He carries her over to the couch, sliding in next to Michelle.

“Mom’s asleep, so we have to be quiet, okay?”

“Okay,” Annie whispers.

Peter leans forward to rest his forehead on the back of her neck. 

“I’m not going to lose you,” he murmurs.

She wiggles and twists in his grasp until she’s turned around. Her fingers latch onto his earlobe and pull. He makes an exaggerated surprised expression and she starts laughing.

He can feel the well of fear starting to rise again—combined with a surge of protectiveness. He wants to keep her just like this, safe and happy, forever. That’s impossible. The world is too unpredictable and overwhelming. He doesn’t know how to deal with it. He can’t—

Tony clears his throat from across the room. Peter glances up.

One of his eyebrows is quirked. It’s such a classic expression that Peter finds a smile slipping onto his face despite himself. 

Maybe Tony’s right. Bad things happen to everyone and Annie’s no exception, but he and Michelle will be there to pick up the pieces the best that they can. And the rest of their family will too.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my mcu MJ in a spider-suit summoning circle!
> 
> My [tumblr!](https://peterparkrr.tumblr.com)


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